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Un-carrier 6.0

And yet, T-Mobile wasn’t finished. iPhone borrowing is Un-carrier 5.0, but T-Mobile decided to also launch Un-carrier 6.0 too. Un-carrier 5.0 focuses on the network itself, but Un-carrier 6.0 is about what customers do on the network. For Un-carrier 6.0, T-Mobile launched “Music Freedom.” For Music Freedom, the company whitelisted eight major music streaming portals for unmetered access:

Pandora

Rhapsody

iHeartRadio

iTunes Radio

Samsung Milk

Slacker

SFX Beatport

Spotify

As cool as the unmetered music streaming sounds, it’s not really a new practice. What T-Mobile is doing in Music Freedom is known as “zero-rating,” where the operator decides to nullify the effect of using particular sites or services on consumers. This is very common in developing countries (Wikipedia Zero, Facebook Zero, Google Free Zone, etc.), and here in the US, T-Mobile first did it with GoSmart Mobile, where it offers free Facebook access, regardless of data plan (or lack thereof).

There are some net neutrality concerns when it comes to this. Because T-Mobile is currently only offering unmetered access with these eight services, subscribers would be more likely to use these services over any newer ones, because others would count against the high-speed data bucket. T-Mobile argues differently. The company admits that the eight services do not encompass all of the internet’s music streaming options, but says that 85% of all music streaming is from these eight. And it freely admits that this could change very rapidly, thus T-Mobile added a poll on its website for voting on more music services to add. Also, if a (legal) service is not on the list and customers would like it to be part of Music Freedom, the FAQ on the web page notes anyone (subscriber or music service company) can email T-Mobile to request it to be added.

The challenge with whitelisting all of them at once is the technical work required. The provisioning system has to be modified to detect the appropriate request URIs and not count them toward the high-speed data bucket. The company also notes that no commercial agreements are in place between the providers and T-Mobile in regards to this, so it shouldn’t be an issue. This is all being done from T-Mobile’s side at its cost.

It may come to your mind that perhaps T-Mobile should just whitelist all audio data instead of using specific streaming portals. However, that may not be feasible. In order for something like that to work, T-Mobile’s system needs to understand all audio formats from the perspective of some sort of deep packet inspection and be able to decrypt any encrypted audio streams, should a music streaming service use encryption to protect the music from being ripped on the fly. While it may be possible to do the former, no one really wants anybody to do the latter. Arbitrarily decrypting media streams to read the encapsulated data is usually not a good idea, as the music service would not be very happy about it and could potentially block T-Mobile customers from accessing its service in retaliation. Using URI based whitelisting is much safer and less legally thorny.

The interesting thing about the free music streaming is that the nature of music streaming generally makes it quite easy to carry over the network. There’s not much of an extreme latency requirement (like there is in video to prevent issues in playback), and most music streaming services operate at 128Kbps or lower, keeping loads quite low. For example, Pandora uses 64Kbps AAC+ for free streams. Even if T-Mobile throttled you to 128Kbps, you wouldn’t generally notice it with music services. That’s the brilliant part. But, customers have to use the mobile apps. The websites themselves are not covered, which prevents streaming consumed by tethering from being zero-rated.

Even with all this, there’s still more! T-Mobile also launched Rhapsody UnRadio, a new service that is freely available to T-Mobile customers subscribed to the newest Simple Choice plan with unlimited high speed data. Other T-Mobile customers can get it for $4 per month, and non-customers can get it for $5 per month. T-Mobile positions it as a internet radio service that works the way customers want to listen to music. Unlike most internet radio services, UnRadio allows selecting favorite music tracks and listening to them again, unlimited skipping, access to many AM/FM radio station streams, and no advertisements. It’s interesting to note that this is being unveiled as Cricket (one of T-Mobile/MetroPCS’ chief competitors in prepaid) is winding down its Muve Music service that it bundled with its plans, since AT&T (its new owner) is pushing customers to Beats Music. UnRadio looks to be a solid alternative for those who want something like Muve Music from T-Mobile.

More to come…

During the event, John Legere stated, “We’re never going to run out of pain points to solve!” As the event wound down, T-Mobile announces that it won’t stop, and that Un-carrier 7.0 is coming later this summer. Even with the backdrop of rumors of a potential acquisition by Sprint, and the merger mania going on in telecom in the US and globally, it seems that T-Mobile is planning on just chugging along, solving one pain point after another.

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mrseanpaul81

I love tmobile!

meddle0ne

Cool. Now about that service coverage.

Zunalter

What is this strange creature? A giant telecom company that actually appears to be trying to add value to their service instead of squeezing every last dime from their customers? Have I wandered into an alternate universe?

Ivor O’Connor

I use T-Mobile and I support this advert!

(Though I do not support Apple.)

I have been using T-Mobile for quite a long time and as a power user I greatly appreciate what they do as opposed to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

java lu

I switched to T-Mobile a long time ago, was just giving a random shot hoping that I made the right choice. Well, I am super impressed every day!

RozzSummer

You may recall that T-Mobile had agreed to be acquired by ATT not long ago and the deal got shot down by regulators. I’m not generally a fan of AG Holder, but the Justice Department made the right call in this case. Does anyone think the kind of innovations T-Mobile is rolling out now would have occurred as a subsidiary of ATT? Not a chance.

I’m hoping any Sprint overture for T-Mobile gets the same treatment from regulators. Lesson learned.

Mark G

you do realize that if the sprint merger with tmobile isnt killed that John J. Legere will be running the newly formed company ……that would make the new company a mega threat to at$t and veri$ion ….im all for it

fidge

This would be awesome if T-Mobile had coverage for voice and sms outside of major US cities. The coverage for even basic mobile phone usage is atrocious.

Elias Steurer

Whats wrong with you t-mobile? Here in germany you’re by far the worst internet provider 0.o

http://pharaohtechblog.blogspot.com/ Conan Kudo (ニール・ゴンパ)

I don’t know. But T-Mobile Germany is run by Telekom Deutschland, a completely different group of people. Perhaps you should ask Telekom reps there why they can’t do what T-Mobile US is doing? After all, clearly T-Mobile has been rapidly improving and doing well in the market.

Though by the accounts I’ve seen, Telekom isn’t doing badly at all. It’s got a strong contract base, and its IPTV and VDSL/FTTH bundles with wireless are well received.

Fabius1

I’m a tmobile customer on my way out. I wish they’d dedicate these resources to building a real national network. Even along major interstates, there is close to zero data coverage if you are not actually inside a major city. The relatively short and heavily trafficked highways between Austin and Houston or Austin and Dallas? Nothing. If you ever drive anywhere outside of the city where you live, T-Mobile will not meet your needs.

Tajis

I love the idea, loathe the coverage. Where I live, if you go more than half a mile out of town the service drops rapidly to nothing. Granted one can usually piggyback voice only through AT&T, what’s the point of having a smart phone if you lose 98% of the services you own a smart phone for?

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